


Help from Unexpected Places

by wildforce71



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-02-06
Updated: 2010-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 01:46:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildforce71/pseuds/wildforce71
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since John Sheppard stepped onto Atlantis, the city's been waking. Now he's woken something he can't shut off...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Help from Unexpected Places

38 Minutes

Later, when he thought about, John realised he was lucky it had started when it did. The first couple of times his teammates put it down to the medication he was on. And after…

Well, after it didn't matter so much.

Teyla was sitting by his bed in the infirmary, passing along well wishes from the Athosian children, when John saw a young girl peering around the doorframe. Unusually, she was blonde; he didn't think he'd seen a blonde Athosian yet.

"Ask her in, Teyla," he suggested.

"Ask who?" She followed his gaze to the door. "No one is there, John."

"One of the kids was there. A little blonde girl."

Teyla eyed him. "There are no blonde girls among the children, John. Are you feeling well?"

"Yeah. I'm…just tired, I guess."

"Perhaps you should get some rest."

John smiled, idly wondering how Teyla managed to imply 'you idiot' while apparently being totally sincere. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed. "Wake me if anything good happens."

"I shall. Sleep well."

He really was tired. Turned out having the life drained out of you was really draining…who knew? Sighing, he settled down to sleep.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The next time he woke up the girl was sitting cross-legged on the end of his bed, studying him. "You _do_ see me," she said delightedly. "I thought you did, and then Teyla didn't so I was sure…"

She slid off the bed, and some part of him noted the weight on the mattress didn't shift.

"Everything's going to be different now," she said wisely, looking up at him.

"What's going to change? Hey! Who are you?"

Dr Beckett rounded the privacy screen, talking over his shoulder to someone. The girl slid neatly under his arm and vanished. "…soon, all right? Thank you, lass. Major! Are you talking to someone?"

"Just myself, apparently. So what's the good word, Doc? Can I get out of here or what?"

"Well, I'm a little worried about this new habit of talking to yourself," Carson said. He kept a straight face for almost two seconds…a personal best…before giving up.

"That's it. I'm out of here."

"Aye, you can go," Carson agreed. "Light duty only! No Gate travel."

"Aw, Doc.."

"No. Light duty for another three days. Come back to me then. And Major? If you start answering yourself, come see me."

"Very funny, Doc. Thanks."

Suspicion

After that John caught fleeting glimpse of her around the city. No one else seemed to see her; after the first couple of times he tried to point her out to people he gave up.

He'd decided he wasn't imagining her; with all the weird things in his head, he thought if he ever did start imagining things, a little blonde girl in the uniform of the Ancients and—of all things—an Alice band probably wouldn't be the first thing to appear.

It did startle him slightly when he walked into the conference room to find her sitting on the table, swinging her legs. "Hi!" she said brightly.

"Excuse me? Who are you?"

"Atlantis," she said, as though it should have been obvious. Then, shrugging, she added, "Well, bits of Atlantis, anyway."

"What bits?"

She leaned to one side, almost falling off the table. "You know your people can see you, right?"

"What?"

"And they can't see me? I thought you'd figured that out by now."

John took a deep breath, sitting carefully at the table so his face couldn't be seen. "What parts of Atlantis?"

"Better. We don't want your friends to think you're insane."

"What bits of Atlantis?"

"Memory banks and sensors. Mostly." She smiled, starting to swing her legs again. "I'm designed to facilitate information gathering and problem solving."

"Designed?"

She nodded brightly. "I'm holographic…more or less. A representation. Like the woman down in the map room."

"The woman down in the map room is a _woman._ And you're…" He gestured vaguely, trying to make it look like a stretch.

"I'm supposed to look sufficiently different from your peers that you can pick me out. The children are in a minority here, and none of them are blonde."

"Nice choice. Look…"

The door hissed open and he turned, rising as Rodney and Elizabeth came in. Bates was trailing behind them.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the girl rise to her feet, wandering idly across the top of the table until she reached the unoccupied side. Bouncing to ground level, she leaned against the table, arms folded.

"You should listen to Rodney," she prompted him, and he jerked his attention back.

"…on certain planets that pick up the transmission and then alert the nearest Hive Ship. Those were the planets where we were attacked."

"Boy, do we owe a few people an apology," John said pointedly. Bates shifted, but he didn't answer.

"Teyla had no idea she was giving away your position?" Elizabeth asked. John shifted; the girl was sliding along the table, eyeing Teyla's locket curiously.

"She said it was a present from her father. She lost it when she was a kid." John was only half paying attention; even knowing the kid was invisible or intangible or whatever, it made him itch seeing her standing so close to Elizabeth.

"It's pretty," the girl said indifferently, backing away. "Especially for a Wraith. No sense of aesthetics, those things."

"So some Athosian thought this would make a nice little necklace?"

He'd been speaking to her and was surprised when Rodney answered. "What am I, Answer Man? The point is…"

"It wasn't Teyla," Elizabeth interrupted him. "Or any other Athosian, for that matter."

"If that's the case…" John smiled. "We can use it against 'em."

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The Wraith looked up when John came into the holding area. "Again…Your kind is persistent. I would have thought you'd given up by now."  
"Aww, hell, I've got all the time in the world. Now you on the other hand…"

The Wraith tried to grab him through the bars; John jerked backwards, and the forcefield flared to life between the bars, blocking the Wraith in.

The girl was standing on the other side of the cell when John recovered, glaring at the prisoner.

"The ancients were pretty good at shields and stuff like that weren't they," John continued easily. "I give you a week. Maybe two…tops."

"You waste your time," the Wraith told him. "I'll provide you with no information."

"Wonder what hurts more, the gun shot wound or the hunger? Because I'd love to help out but…how did McKay put it?" His voice hardened. "We can't meet your dietary requirements."

"When I am free you will be the first that I feed upon," the Wraith promised him.

"Okie dokie…I'm going to go make myself a sandwich." He turned as if to leave, pausing when the Wraith spoke again.

"Human. You think you've won a victory by my capture but by bringing me here you've only hastened your own doom. It's only a matter of time before the others of my kind come to rescue me…and when they do…They'll be no where in this world you can hide."

"Stay positive now," John warned him, leaving.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The girl was leaning against the wall outside; she fell into step with him, waiting patiently until they reached the transporter. "You shouldn't keep him here," she warned him.  
"Yeah, I've heard that," he agreed vaguely. "Why can't anyone else see you?"

"They're not of the People. Not the way you are."

"The People?" He could hear the capital P when she said it.

She gestured around them. "The People who lived here."

"The Ancie—the gene. Is that it? I have the gene and they don't?"

"A gene," she repeated slowly. "Yes…yes, your doctor's been researching that. The gene would explain it."

John came to a halt; she overshot him, turning back to stare at him quizzically.

"Why," he said slowly, "can't anyone see you?"

"Because they're not in tune with the city the way you are. I'm in your head, John, projected in there. You don't see or hear anything."

John thought about that. "Oddly, that's not the most insane thing I've heard today."

"There are records of it happening before in your own computers. Your SIGI…"

"SG1," he corrected her.

"…team encountered a being called Urgo. They saw and heard him, but he wasn't really there."

"That's reassuring," John muttered. "Why didn't you show up as soon as we got here?"

"The city was locked down. Everything…including me…was turned off when the People left. When your people started powering up they were concentrating on essential systems, and I'm not counted as essential." She made a face at her own statement.

"Information retrieval? Can't think why. Especially since no one can see you."

"Everyone could see me. Your people aren't People, they can't see me."

"Other people have the gene," he pointed out.

"Not strongly enough. Towards the end of the War there were People who couldn't see me." She shrugged, looking back down the corridor. "I'm not made to understand things, just to retrieve information. I can quote you anything you like from the memory banks."

"Ours or yours?"

"Either." She grinned. "Dr McKay has some very interesting hidden files in his system. Would you like me to tell you?"

"Please don't." John started towards his quarters again.

"Why is Samantha Carter so hot? Is she ill?" The girl trailed behind him.

"Really. Please don't."

"How hot do you have to be before you start smoking?"

"Stop now."

He managed to close the door in her face, but when he turned she was sitting on the edge of his bed. "I'm _Atlantis,_ remember? I'm everywhere." She grinned.

John sighed. "What are the chances I'm dreaming all this?"

"Slim to none. Tell me, why is…"

"Alice!" he interrupted her.

"Atlantis."

"You look more like an Alice to me. Look, if McKay's encrypting stuff it's probably for a good reason, so leave it alone. And if you don't mind? I'd really like some privacy."

"Fair enough," she agreed easily. "Just in here, or somewhere else as well?"

"In here," he said warily.

"Good." She grinned again. "See you in the morning." Between one heartbeat and the next she was gone.

John grimaced, wiping his eyes. "This is gonna be interesting."


End file.
